North Korea puts tearful detained American before cameras

North Korea puts tearful detained American before cameras
 

American student Otto Warmbier speaks as Warmbier is presented to reporters Monday, Feb. 29, 2016, in Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korea announced late last month that it had arrested the 21-year-old University of Virginia undergraduate student.

  

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) -- North Korea presented a detained American student before the media on Monday in Pyongyang, where he tearfully apologized for attempting to steal a political banner - at the behest, he said, of a member of a church back home who wanted it as a "trophy" - from a staff-only section of the hotel where he had been staying.

North Korea announced in late January it had arrested Otto Warmbier, a 21-year-old University of Virginia undergraduate student. It said that after entering the country as a tourist he committed an anti-state crime with "the tacit connivance of the U.S. government and under its manipulation."

No details of what kind of charges or punishment Warmbier faces were immediately released.

According to Warmbier's statement Monday, he wanted the banner with a political slogan on it as a trophy for the church member, who was the mother of a friend.

In previous cases, people who have been detained in North Korea and made a public confession often recant those statements after their release.

He was arrested while visiting the country with Young Pioneer Tours, an agency specializing in travel to North Korea, which is strongly discouraged by the U.S. State Department. He had been staying at the Yanggakdo International Hotel, which is located on an island in a river that runs through Pyongyang, the capital.

It is common for sections of tourist hotels to be reserved for North Korean staff and off-limits to foreigners.

In Washington, State Department spokesman John Kirby said that as a general practice, it was not uncommon for North Korea to detain and imprison people on false or "trumped-up" charges, and use detentions for propaganda purposes.

But Kirby said he could not comment on Warmbier's case because of privacy considerations, nor on whether Sweden, which handles consular affairs for the U.S. in North Korea, has had access to him.

In his comments, Warmbier said he was offered a used car worth $10,000 by a member of the church. He said the church member told him the slogan would be hung on its wall as a trophy. He also said he was told that if he was detained and didn't return, $200,000 would be paid to his mother in the form of a charitable donation.

Warmbier identified the church as the Friendship United Methodist Church, which is in his hometown, Wyoming, Ohio.

Meshach Kanyion, pastor of the church, would not confirm whether he knows Warmbier or if he is a church member.

"I don't have any comment at this time," he told The Associated Press.

Warmbier's parents said they had not heard from their son since his arrest and were greatly relieved to finally see a picture of him.

"You can imagine how deeply worried we were and what a traumatic experience this has been for us," Warmbier's father, Fred Warmbier, said in a statement provided by the University of Virginia.

"I hope the fact that he has conveyed his sincere apology for anything that he may have done wrong will now make it possible for the (North Korean) authorities to allow him to return home," he said.

The university said it had no immediate comment other than that it was in close contact with Warmbier's family.

Warmbier told reporters in Pyongyang that he had also been encouraged in his act by the university's "Z Society," which he said he was trying to join. The magazine of the university's alumni association describes the Z Society as a "semi-secret ring society" that was founded in 1892 and conducts philanthropy, puts on honorary dinners and grants academic awards.

Warmbier said he accepted the offer of money because his family is "suffering from very severe financial difficulties."

"I started to consider this as my only golden opportunity to earn money," he said, adding that if he ever mentioned the involvement of the church, "no payments would come."

North Korea regularly accuses Washington and Seoul of sending spies to overthrow its government to enable the U.S.-backed South Korean government to control the Korean Peninsula.

U.S. tourism to North Korea is legal and virtually all Americans who make the journey return home without incident.

Even so, the State Department has repeatedly warned against travel to the North. Visitors, especially those from America, who break the country's sometimes murky rules risk detention, arrest and possible jail sentences.

Young Pioneer describes itself on its website as providing "budget tours to destinations your mother would rather you stayed away from."

The agency, based in China, also has tours to Iran, Cuba, Turkmenistan, Iraq and other former Soviet countries.

After Warmbier's detention, it stressed in a news release that he was the first of the 7,000 people it has taken to North Korea over the past eight years to face arrest.

"Despite what you may hear, North Korea is probably one of the safest places on Earth to visit," it says on its website.

In the past, North Korea has held out until senior U.S. officials or statesmen came to personally bail out detainees, all the way up to former President Bill Clinton, whose visit in 2009 secured the freedom of American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling. Both had crossed North Korea's border from China illegally.

It took a visit in November 2014 by U.S. spy chief James Clapper to bring home Matthew Miller, who had ripped up his visa when entering the country, and Korean-American missionary Kenneth Bae, who had been incarcerated since November 2012.

Jeffrey Fowle, another U.S. tourist from Ohio detained for six months at about the same time as Miller, was released just before that and sent home on a U.S. government plane.

He left a Bible in a local club hoping a North Korean would find it, which is considered a criminal offense in North Korea.

As protests swirl, Oscars have feel of high-stakes showdown

As protests swirl, Oscars have feel of high-stakes showdown

Protestors gather outside of the offices of WABC-TV to rally for more diversity in the film industry Sunday, Feb. 28, 2016, in New York.

  

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Hollywood is bracing for an Academy Awards that more than any in recent memory, has the feel of a high-stakes showdown.

After a second straight year of all-white acting nominees prompted industry-wide scrutiny, viewers and stars alike are hanging on the opening words of host Chris Rock. The Dolby Theatre ceremony, heavily guarded by security, stands at the center of a swirling storm over diversity in the movies and at the Oscars, with the Rev. Al Sharpton leading a protest near the red carpet and some viewers planning a boycott of the broadcast.

The Academy Awards, normally decorous and predictable, are this year charged with enough politics and uncertainty to rival an election debate. Attendees were streaming down the red carpet at the 88th annual Academy Awards, with the ceremony to kick off at 8:30 p.m. EST on ABC. With the sun out on a warm California day, organizers removed the roof above the red carpet.

Down the street from the Dolby Theatre, Sharpton led several dozen demonstrators in protest against a second straight year of all-white acting nominees. Demonstrators held signs reading "Hollywood Must Do Better" and "Shame on You."

"This will be the last night of an all-white Oscars," Sharpton vowed at the rally.

The night's top honor, best picture, is considered one of the most hard-to-call categories. The three major guild awards - the Screen Actors, the Directors and the Producers - have spread their top honors among three films seen as the front-runners: Alejandro Inarritu's frontier epic "The Revenant," Adam McKay's financial meltdown tale "The Big Short" and Tom McCarthy's newsroom drama "Spotlight."

"The Revenant," buoyed by big box office and a win at the BAFTAs, is seen as the one with the most momentum and has the best odds in Las Vegas. Its star, Leonardo DiCaprio, appears to be a shoo-in to land his first Academy Award in his fifth nomination. Back-to-back best picture wins for "Birdman" director Inarritu would be unprecedented.

But the headlines this year haven't been driven by the nominated films and performances nearly as much as the ones that weren't.

The nominees restored the hashtag "OscarsSoWhite" to prominence and led Spike Lee (an honorary Oscar winner this year) and Jada Pinkett Smith to announce that they would not attend the show. Several top African American directors - Ryan Coogler (whose "Creed" is expected to land Sylvester Stallone a best supporting actor) and Ava DuVernay ("Selma") - won't be at the Oscars, but will instead host a live benefit in Flint, Michigan, for the water-contaminated city.

In a quick response to the growing crisis, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, president of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, pushed ahead reforms to the academy intended to diversify its overwhelming white and male membership. But those changes (which included stripping older, out-of-work members of their voting rights) precipitated a backlash of its own. A chorus of academy members challenged the reforms. Others have cast doubt on how effective the changes will be.

Isaacs defended the changes on the red carpet ahead of the show. "We are going to continue to take action and not just speak," Isaacs told ABC.

In the academy turmoil, focus on diversity has spread beyond the academy - which can only nominate films that get made - to the studios. A report released last Monday by the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism gave a failing grade to all six major studios for their racial, ethnic and gender inclusiveness in front and behind the camera.

All the while, Rock has remained mum. The comedian, considered one of the most frank commentators on race in America, hasn't granted the usual pre-show interviews. Rock, who first hosted the Oscars in 2005, on Friday mysteriously tweeted a video of television static that he tagged "blackout." ''See you Sunday," he wrote.

How the controversy will affect ratings for ABC is also one of the night's big questions. Last year's telecast, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, slid 16 percent to 36.6 million viewers, a six-year low. While the appeal of seeing Rock face Hollywood's diversity crisis head on should help drive curious viewers, a long night of dutiful speeches on the issue could turn away others more interested in glamour and celebrity.

The film academy has also rolled out a new wrinkle to the show. The Oscars will introduce a new "thank you" crawl for winners in an effort to trim acceptance speeches of long lists of names.

While smaller, independent films have in recent years dominated the Oscars (the last two years were topped by Fox Searchlight releases "Birdman" and "12 Years a Slave"), five of this year's eight best picture nominees come from major studios. That includes the hits "The Martian" and "Mad Max: Fury Road," but, alas, not "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." J.J. Abrams' movie, the biggest box-office smash of the decade, earned five nods in technical categories.

Security around Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue is especially heightened because Vice President Joe Biden will be attending to give a special presentation with Lady Gaga aimed at combating sexual violence.

Cease-fire brings relative quiet to Syria despite breaches

Cease-fire brings relative quiet to Syria despite breaches
 

A Syrian girl chases pigeons in Marjeh Square, Damascus, Syria, Saturday, Feb. 27, 2016.

  

BEIRUT (AP) -- A cease-fire brought relative quiet to parts of Syria for the first time in years on Saturday, offering civilians rare respite from Russian and Syrian government airstrikes despite some limited breaches of the agreement brokered by Washington and Moscow.

Fighting continued against the Islamic State group, which launched a surprise offensive on a northern town and carried out a suicide truck bombing in central Syria. The extremist group, along with al-Qaida's branch in Syria, the Nusra Front, is not party to the cease-fire, which went into effect at midnight.

The cease-fire marks the most ambitious international attempt yet to reduce violence in the devastating conflict, which has killed more than 250,000 people, wounded a million and generated one of the worst refugee crises since World War II.

There were numerous violations of the cease-fire Saturday, but the level of violence was markedly down nationwide, giving hope to war-weary civilians across the country.

"Today we woke up and it was calm, stable. And even in the street ... it was complete calm, said Loris Atwah, a 65-year-old resident of Damascus.

"We pray to God that the cease-fire will continue," said Ragheb Bashir Ali, 22.

In southern Syria, the situation was "calm" Saturday, according to opposition activist Ahmad al-Masalmeh, who is based in the southern city of Daraa. Quiet also prevailed in large parts of the central province of Homs, according to Mohammed al-Sibai, who is based in the province.

"The situation yesterday was very bad and fighting was intense," al-Masalmeh said. "Then it was like a football match. People were excited and once the referee blew his whistle all the noise stopped."

The opposition's Syrian Civil Defense, a group of first responders known as the "White Helmets," posted on Twitter: "In comparison with past 4 years, today very quiet and #SyriaCeasefire holding in the main. Long may it last."

Syria's state-run news agency said militants fired several shells on residential areas in the capital in the first breach of the cease-fire around midday Saturday. SANA says the shells were fired by "terrorist groups" entrenched in Jobar and Douma, two opposition-held Damascus suburbs.

It later said one person was killed and another one was wounded by sniper fire on the outskirts of the government-held Sheikh Maksoud neighborhood in Aleppo city.

Rebel groups said they have registered numerous violations by government forces across the country that could threaten the agreement.

Lt. Col. Fares al-Bayoush, commander of the 1,300-strong Fursan al-Haq Brigade, a U.S.-backed rebel faction, told The Associated Press that his group and others affiliated with the mainstream Free Syrian Army are so far abiding by the truce.

"If they continue with these violations we will be forced to retaliate accordingly," he said by phone from southern Turkey. He added, however, that the cease-fire has sharply reduced government attacks across northern Syria, where his group is based.

The U.N. envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura said some incidents were to be expected, but that the situation after the first night and day of the cease-fire was "quite reassuring."

A top military official in Moscow said Russia has grounded its warplanes in Syria to help secure the cease-fire.

Lt.-Gen. Sergei Rudskoi said that while Russia will continue airstrikes against IS and the Nusra Front, Moscow is keeping its aircraft on the ground for now "to avoid any possible mistakes."

He said the Russian military had established hotlines to exchange information with the U.S. military in order to help monitor the cease-fire and quickly respond to any conflict situations.

The U.S. has provided the Russian Defense Ministry with similar maps and its own list of opposition units, which have agreed to respect the cease-fire.

Rudskoi said that according to the U.S.-Russian agreements, a rebel unit that accidentally comes under attack should contact Russian or U.S. representatives, who would quickly resolve the matter.

A coordination center at the Hemeimeem air base in Syria's coastal province of Latakia, where Russian warplanes are based, has 61 officers who negotiate with groups willing to join the cease-fire and coordinate the deliveries of humanitarian aid. Rudskoi said 17 opposition units have contacted the Russian military to adhere to the truce.

IS meanwhile launched two suicide attacks near the central town of Salamiyeh, one on an army checkpoint that killed two and wounded four. The second car bomb was destroyed by Syrian troops before reaching a military post, state TV said.

The IS-affiliated Aamaq news agency said IS claimed responsibility for the blasts in the area, where most residents belong to the Ismaili branch of Shiite Islam. The Sunni extremist group views Shiites as heretics.

In the northern province of Raqqa, IS fighters attacked the border town of Tal Abyad and the nearby village of Suluk, which were captured months ago by Kurdish fighters, according to a Syrian rebel official.

Talal Sillo, a spokesman for the predominantly Kurdish Syria Democratic Forces, said the fighting began after midnight Friday and was still ongoing. He and the main Kurdish militia in Syria, the YPG, said some of the IS fighters came from Turkey. The YPG statement said its fighters had killed the attackers after hours of fighting.

The Aamaq news agency reported that IS fighters launched a "surprise attack" on several areas in northern Raqqa province, where Tal Abyad is located. The report did not provide further details.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group that monitors the conflict, said at least 70 

militants and 20 Kurdish fighters were killed in the clashes. The report could not be independently confirmed.

The Observatory said intense fighting is ongoing near the northern town of Khanaser between pro-government forces and IS. Battles have continued for five days in the strategic area near the highway that links Aleppo with central and western Syria.

State TV said Syrian warplanes attacked oil tanker trucks belonging to IS in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour.

Teen who killed teacher gets life with chance for parole

Teen who killed teacher gets life with chance for parole
  

SALEM, Mass. (AP) -- A teenager who raped and killed his high school math teacher was sentenced Friday to life in prison with eligibility for parole in 40 years.

The 2013 slaying of Danvers High School teacher Colleen Ritzer by Philip Chism was "brutal and senseless," Salem Superior Court Judge David Lowy said as he pronounced the sentence.

"Colleen Ritzer lived a life of quiet heroism," the judge said. "The crashing waves of this tragedy will never wane."

Chism was 14 when he followed Ritzer, who was 24, into a school bathroom, strangled her, stabbed her at least 16 times and raped her. His lawyers acknowledged he killed her but argued he was mentally ill, a contention rejected by the jury.

Chism, now 17, will serve life in prison with the possibility of parole in 25 years on a murder charge, but he received 40-year concurrent sentences on rape and robbery charges. The net result will leave him eligible to be paroled in 40 years, when he would be in his 50s.

Ritzer's parents said Chism should never have a chance to leave prison on parole.

Her mother, Peggie Ritzer, called the sentence unacceptable. She blamed the state Supreme Judicial Court, which ruled in December 2013 that juveniles could not be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Prosecutors had asked that Chism stay in prison for at least 50 years. Defense attorney Susan Oker asked for a sentence that would make Chism eligible for parole no later than age 40. She cited scientific studies that said a juvenile brain is not fully developed.

During the earlier sentencing hearing, Ritzer's parents, siblings, colleagues and lifelong friends on Friday described a young woman who loved her job, her students and her life and who never had a negative word to say. Many of them wore pink, her favorite color.

Peggie Ritzer said her daughter's death had left her "so very broken."

"Now I isolate myself from people I love because pretending to be happy is so difficult," she said. "He is pure evil, and evil can never be rehabilitated."

Tom Ritzer said he felt as though he had failed his daughter.

"I didn't protect Colleen," he said. "A dad's job is to fix things. I would do anything I could if I could fix this for Colleen."

Chism's mother, Diane Chism, cried quietly as he was sentenced. Earlier Friday, she released a statement expressing her condolences to Ritzer's family.

"Words can't express the amount of pain and sorrow these past 2 1/2 years have been," she said. "However, there is no one who has suffered more than the Ritzer family. My utmost esteem, prayers and humble respect is with them today as they continue their journey to heal."

At trial, the defense said Chism wasn't criminally responsible for his actions. A psychiatrist who testified for the defense said Chism, who had just moved to Massachusetts from Clarksville, Tennessee, was hearing voices and was in the throes of a psychotic episode when he killed Ritzer.

Chism was convicted of raping Ritzer inside the bathroom but was acquitted of a second rape, committed with a tree branch in woods near the school where he put her body. He also was convicted of armed robbery for stealing Ritzer's credit cards and underwear.

Cleveland surgeons perform nation's first uterus transplant

Cleveland surgeons perform nation's first uterus transplant

CLEVELAND (AP) -- Surgeons in Cleveland say they have performed the nation's first uterus transplant, a new frontier that aims to give women who lack wombs a chance at pregnancy.

In a statement Thursday, the Cleveland Clinic said the nine-hour surgery was performed a day earlier on a 26-year-old woman, using a uterus from a deceased donor.

The hospital had long been planning for such a surgery, announcing last fall a clinical trial that would attempt 10 transplants. The hospital said it wouldn't release any more details until a press conference next week, except to say the woman's condition was stable.

Other countries have tried womb transplants - Sweden reported the first successful birth in 2014, with a total of five healthy babies so far. Doctors there say the still experimental treatment might be an alternative for some of the thousands of women unable to have children because they were born without a uterus or lost it to disease.

Others have questioned whether such an extreme step would be a realistic option for many women. It's fraught with medical risk, including rejection of the transplant and having to take potent immune-suppressing drugs for a transplant that, unlike patients who receive a donated kidney or heart, isn't life-saving.

The Cleveland Clinic's Dr. Andreas Tzakis said the risks aren't greater than those for other transplants but is considered life-enhancing, like transplants of the face or hand.

One important difference: "Unlike any other transplants, they are 'ephemeral,'" Tzakis said last year in a statement announcing the study. "They are not intended to last for the duration of the recipient's life, but will be maintained for only as long as is necessary to produce one or two children."

Removing a uterus from a deceased donor requires more than a normal hysterectomy, as the major arteries also must be removed. The womb and blood vessels are sewn inside the recipient's pelvis. Before closing the abdomen, surgeons check for good blood flow and that the attachment to the ligaments is strong enough to maintain a pregnancy.

If a woman is approved for a transplant in the study, she would first have to have eggs removed from her ovaries, like is done for in vitro fertilization, and then freeze the embryos. Those could be implanted only 12 months after the transplant heals, if it's successful.

The hospital said it would attempt transplants in women with what's called uterine factor infertility, meaning they were born without a uterus or with uterine abnormalities that block pregnancy.

McConnell shuts door on Senate action on Obama court pick

McConnell shuts door on Senate action on Obama court pick
 

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, arrives for a committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016. Senate Republicans, most vocally Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, are facing a high-stakes political showdown with President Barack Obama sparked by the recent death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Republicans controlling the Senate — which must confirm any Obama appointee before the individual is seated on the court — say that the decision is too important to be determined by a lame-duck president

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Majority Leader Mitch McConnell emphatically ruled out any Senate action on whoever President Barack Obama nominates to fill the Supreme Court vacancy, an extraordinary step that escalated the partisan election-year struggle over replacing the late Antonin Scalia. Democrats promised unremitting pressure on Republicans to back down or face the consequences in November's voting.

After winning unanimous public backing from the 11 Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, McConnell told reporters that that panel would hold no hearings and ruled out a full Senate vote until the next president offers a nomination. Such steps would defy many decades of precedent that have seen even the most controversial choices questioned publicly by the Judiciary Committee and nearly always sent to the entire chamber for a vote, barring nominees the White House has withdrawn.

"In short, there will not be action taken," McConnell told reporters.

The Kentucky Republican said he wouldn't even meet with an Obama selection should the White House follow tradition and send the nominee to Capitol Hill to visit senators. Such a snub could generate campaign-season television images of a scorned selection standing outside a closed door.

"I don't know the purpose of such a visit," McConnell said. "I would not be inclined to take one myself."

Obama is expected to announce a nomination in the next few weeks. Since the Senate started routinely referring presidential nominations to committees for action in 1955, every Supreme Court nominee not later withdrawn has received a Judiciary Committee hearing, according to the Senate Historical Office.

With the issue certain to roil this year's presidential and congressional elections, Democrats said Republicans were topping their own obstructionist high-water mark of three years ago, when their doomed effort to force Obama to repeal his own health care law helped produce a 16-day partial government shutdown.

They also accused Republicans of following the lead of billionaire Donald Trump, a leading GOP presidential candidate who's called on Senate Republicans to derail any Obama court selection. Democrats and some Republicans believe that if Trump is the GOP presidential nominee, he will cost Republicans seats in Congress.

"The party of Lincoln is now the party of Donald Trump," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told reporters.

Filling the vacancy left by Scalia's unexpected death on Feb. 13 is crucial because without him, the Supreme Court is left in a 4-4 ideological knot between justices who are usually conservative and its liberal wing. The battle has invigorated both sides' interest groups and voters who focus on abortion, immigration and other issues before the court.

"He hasn't seen the pressure that's going to build," Reid said when asked if McConnell might relent. "It's going to build in all facets of the political constituency and the country."

After meeting privately with GOP senators for the first time since Scalia's death, McConnell and other leaders said rank-and-file Republicans were overwhelmingly behind the decision to quickly halt the nomination process.

"Why even put that ball on the field?" Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said of hearings. "All you're going to do is 

fumble it. Let the people decide."

Moderate Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., who faces an arduous re-election race this fall, are among the few who've voiced support for at least holding hearings on an Obama nominee. 

Democrats are hoping that other Republican senators facing November re-election in swing states including New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin will relent over time or face retribution from voters.

No. 3 Senate leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said McConnell wanted to quickly end any talk of a nomination process proceeding because, "He wants to lock his people in because he knows the whirlwind's coming."

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said it was "absolutely" possible the Senate would end up holding hearings, pointing to statements by Collins, Kirk and others. Earnest said Obama has spoken in the last day to Republican lawmakers, including some on the Judiciary panel.

McConnell and other Republicans have said the high court vacancy should not be filled during a presidential election year and that the voters - by electing the next president - should choose who makes that nomination.

Democrats note that in 1988, a Democratic-led Senate confirmed Anthony Kennedy to the court, though he'd been nominated by President Ronald Reagan the preceding year. Republicans say it's been over eight decades since a nomination occurred and was filled in the same election year.

"Because our decision is based on constitutional principle and born of a necessity to protect the will of the American people, this committee will not hold hearings on any Supreme Court nominee until after our next president is sworn in on January 20, 2017," Judiciary Committee Republicans said in their letter to McConnell.

In remarks Tuesday at Georgetown University law school, Justice Samuel Alito sounded unfazed about possibly spending the rest of this year in a court whose members are locked in a 4-4 tie.

"We will deal with it," Alito answered when asked about Republicans' resolve to oppose anyone Obama nominates.

US, Russia agree on Syria cease-fire plan; questions remain

US, Russia agree on Syria cease-fire plan; questions remain

Syrian women shop at the popular Hamidiyeh old market in Damascus , Syria, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) -- The United States and Russia have agreed on a new cease-fire for Syria that will take effect Saturday, even as major questions over enforcing and responding to violations of the truce were left unresolved. Syria's warring government and rebels still need to accept the deal.

The timeline for a hoped-for breakthrough comes after the former Cold War foes, backing opposing sides in the conflict, said they finalized the details of a "cessation of hostilities" between President Bashar Assad's government and armed opposition groups after five years of violence that has killed more than 250,000 people.

The truce will not cover the Islamic State group, the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front and any other militias designated as terrorist organizations by the U.N. Security Council. But where in Syria the fighting must stop and where counterterrorism operations can continue must still be addressed. And the five-page plan released by the U.S. State Department leaves open how breaches of the cease-fire will be identified or punished.

The announcement came after Presidents Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin spoke by telephone Monday, capping weeks of intense diplomacy to stem the violence so that Assad's government and "moderate" rebel forces might return to peace talks in Geneva. A first round of indirect discussions collapsed almost immediately this month amid a massive government offensive backed by Russian airstrikes in northern Syria.

Obama welcomed the agreement in the call with Putin, which the White House said was arranged at Russia's request. The White House said Obama emphasized the key is to ensure that Syria's government and opposition groups faithfully implement the deal.

"This is going to be difficult to implement," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. "We know there are a lot of obstacles, and there are sure to be some setbacks."

Putin called the agreement a "last real chance to put an end to the many years of bloodshed and violence." Speaking on Russian television, he said Moscow would work with the Syrian government, and expects Washington to do the same with the opposition groups that it supports.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also welcomed the agreement, calling it "a long-awaited signal of hope to the Syrian people." But he warned that much work lies ahead for its implementation.

Hours after the agreement was announced, Assad issued a decree setting parliamentary elections for April 13. A U.N. Security Council resolution adopted in December calls for parliamentary and presidential elections to be held during an 18-month transition period that would end the 5-year-old conflict in Syria. However, the country was due for parliament elections anyway, as the current parliament's four-year term expires in May.

The leader of a Saudi-backed Syrian opposition alliance, meanwhile, said in a statement that rebel factions had agreed "in principle" to an internationally mediated temporary truce. Riad Hijab did not elaborate but urged Russia, Iran and the Assad government to end attacks, lift blockades and release prisoners held in Syria.

Syrian officials said the government was ready to take part in a truce as long as it is not used by militants to reinforce their positions.

Both sides have until Friday to formally accept the plan.

Even if the cease-fire takes hold, fighting will by no means halt.

Russia will surely press on with an air campaign that it insists is targeting terrorists but which the U.S. and its partners say is mainly killing moderate rebels and civilians. While IS tries to expand its self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria and neighboring Iraq, Nusra is unlikely to end its effort to overthrow Assad. The Kurds have been fighting IS, even as they face attacks from America's NATO ally, Turkey. And Assad has his own history of broken promises when it comes to military action.

All of these dynamics make the truce hard to maintain.

"We are all aware of the significant challenges ahead," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said. "Over the coming days, we will be working to secure commitments from key parties that they will abide by the terms."

Kerry said the cessation could lead to less violence, expanded humanitarian deliveries and help support the U.S. goal of a "political transition to a government that is responsive to the desires of the Syrian people." Like previous U.S.-Russian statements, however, Monday's document says nothing about Assad's future - perhaps the biggest stumbling block to a sustained peace.

The plan largely follows the blueprint set by Washington, Moscow and 15 other countries at a conference in Germany earlier this month. That agreement called for a truce by Feb. 19, a deadline that was missed.

Beyond the new cease-fire date, the agreement sets up a "communications hotline" and, if needed, a working group to promote and monitor the truce. Violations are to be addressed by the working group with an eye toward restoring compliance and cooling tensions. The deal also calls for "non-forcible means" to be exhausted before other means are pursued for punishing transgressors.

Any party can report violations to the working group being co-chaired by the U.S. and Russia.

The two countries also will share "pertinent information" about territory held by rebels accepting the truce.

Russia has pushed for broad coordination. Putin apparently hopes that engaging the U.S. in military-to-military cooperation in Syria could help ease the strain in relations and also cast Moscow as a power equaling Washington.

The timing of the cease-fire is only days ahead of Moscow's proposal earlier this month for it to start on March 1. Washington rejected that offer at the time, saying it wanted an "immediate cease-fire" and not one that would allow Syria and its Russian backer to make a last-ditch effort for territorial gains in the Arab country's north and south.

While negotiations dragged, however, Russian airstrikes pummeled areas in and around Aleppo, Syria's largest city, and Assad's military made significant gains.

Inside the Hamidiyeh Souk, a popular Damascus bazaar, people expressed worries that a cease-fire wouldn't be evenly observed, leaving Syrian authorities vulnerable.

"I hope there will be no cease-fire, because if there is a cease-fire, Turks will increase their support for 

criminals and traitors," said Ahmad al-Omar, who is from Aleppo province in the north, adding that Turkey may let opposition fighters in through its border with Syria. The Associated Press reported from the bazaar on a government-approved visit.

But rebels who engage in violence could see their Western support cut off. In recent days, U.S. officials have spoken about the cease-fire being a "self-policing" mechanism. If a group fights Assad's military, according to this logic, it essentially aligns itself with militants considered to be terrorists and can then be attacked.

That has the opposition concerned about Assad or Russia trying to provoke it into acts of self-defense.

The conflict began with violent government repression of largely peaceful protests in 2011 but quickly became a full-blown rebellion against Assad and a proxy battle between his Shiite-backed government and Sunni-supported rebels. A U.S.-led coalition is only attacking the Islamic State and other extremist groups, not Assad's military.

The Syrian government's supply route by land to the city of Aleppo was cut by heavy fighting Monday as the army, supported by allied militias and the Russian air force, fought to consolidate its recent gains. They are trying to seal the border with Turkey, a key supporter of the rebels, before a truce is reached.

Meet the teenage girls on Iran’s death row

Meet the teenage girls on Iran’s death row

Khatereh is a 13-year-old runaway. After being attacked in a
pubic park, she was sent for medical treatment and then transferred
to a juvenile correction centre.
 

Mahsa’s story begins like any other teenager’s story: She fell in love. The 17-year-old Iranian hoped to marry the boy, but her father opposed the marriage. One day she got into an argument with her father over the romance, got angry, and killed him with a kitchen knife. Now, Mahsa’s brothers are requesting the death penalty for her.

In Iran, the death penalty can be applied to minors, and in 2014, a United Nations report estimated that at least 160 juvenile offenders were on death row in the country. Today Mahsa is one of them, held in a detention center in Zibashahr, near Tehran, with other minors awaiting capital punishment.
 

Mahsa’s portrait was taken by Sadegh Souri, a 30-year-old Iranian photographer who spent four years researching women and girls in his home country. With rare access to the Zibashahr prison, Souri’s photos tells the stories of several young women between the ages of 12 and 18, convicted of crimes including armed robbery and drug trafficking.

“My main goal in this project was to understand how young girls could end up in jail in the first place,” the prizewinning photographer tells Quartz. “I spent time talking to them, they were nice and kind.”

According to a Jan. 25 report by Amnesty International, 73 juvenile offenders were executed in Iran between 2005 and 2015.

Clinton wins Nevada caucuses; GOP voting in S. Carolina

Clinton wins Nevada caucuses; GOP voting in S. Carolina
 

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton visits with Harrah's Las Vegas employees on the day of the Nevada Democratic caucus, Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016, in Las Vegas.

  

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- Hillary Clinton pulled out a crucial victory in Nevada's Democratic presidential caucuses Saturday, overcoming an unexpectedly strong surge by Bernie Sanders and easing the anxiety of some of her supporters.

"Some may have doubted us, but we never doubted each other," Clinton told her cheering supporters during a victory rally. "This one is for you."

Clinton captured the backing of voters who said electability and experience were important in their vote. But in a continuing sign of her vulnerability, Sanders did best with voters looking for a candidate who is caring and honest.

Sanders said in a statement that he'd congratulated Clinton on her victory, but then declared his campaign has "the wind at our backs as we head toward Super Tuesday" - the multi-state voting contests on March 1.

Nevada was the first of two presidential primary contests being held Saturday. Republicans were battling in South Carolina, a state seen as billionaire Donald Trump's to lose and one that could start to clarify who, if any, of the more mainstream candidates might emerge to challenge him.

But the South Carolina electorate had warnings for more traditional GOP politicians. Half of voters said they felt betrayed by politicians in the Republican Party.

For both parties, the 2016 election has laid bare voters' frustration with Washington and the influence of big money in the political system. The public mood has upended the usual political order, giving Sanders and Trump openings while leaving more traditional candidates scrambling to find their footing.

Clinton's victory in Nevada could be vital in holding off a challenge from Sanders that has been tougher than almost anyone expected. Clinton and Sanders split the first two voting contests, revealing the Vermont senator's appeal with young people drawn to his impassioned calls for breaking up Wall Street banks and providing free tuition at public colleges and universities.

According to the entrance polls of voters, Clinton was backed by a majority of women, college-educated voters, those with annual incomes over $100,000, moderates, voters aged 45 and older and non-white voters. Sanders did best with men, voters under 45 and those less affluent and educated.

Clinton's win means she will pick up at least 18 of Nevada's 35 delegates. She already holds a sizeable lead in the delegate count based largely on her support from superdelegates - the party leaders who can support the candidate of their choice, no matter the outcome of primaries and caucuses.

Republicans were voting in South Carolina, the first Southern state in the 2016 presidential election. Trump spent the week threatening one rival with a lawsuit, accusing former President George W. Bush of lying, and even tangling with Pope Francis on immigration, yet he still entered the primary contest in strong position.

The prospect of a Trump win alarmed rival Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor trying to save his campaign with a respectable showing in the first Southern state to vote.

"Trump can't win, plain and simple," Bush told reporters outside a polling place in Greenville. "A ton of people would be very uncomfortable with his divisive language and with his inexperience in so many ways."

A Trump victory could foreshadow a solid performance in the collection of Southern states that vote on March 1. Victories in those Super Tuesday contests could put the billionaire in a commanding position in the delegate count, which determines the nomination.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz banked on a well-regarded get-out-the-vote operation and 10,000 volunteers to help overtake Trump on Saturday, as well as in the Southern states that follow.

A failure to top Trump in South Carolina could puncture that strategy, though Cruz, who sidetracked briefly to Washington to attend the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's funeral Mass, will still have more than enough money to run a long campaign.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was also fighting for a top-tier finish in South Carolina that could help establish him as the more mainstream alternative to Trump and Cruz. Many GOP leaders believe neither Trump nor Cruz could win in the general election.

Rubio scored the endorsements of several prominent South Carolina politicians, including Gov. Nikki Haley, and seemed to have rebounded after a dismal debate performance two weeks ago.

Bush hoped his deep family ties to South Carolina - his brother and father each won two primaries here - would be a lifeline for his struggling campaign. But if Bush is unable to stay close to the leaders, he's sure to face pressure to end his campaign.

Also in the mix was Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who had low expectations in South Carolina. He was looking toward more moderate states that vote later in March. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson had a small but loyal cadre of followers.

Democrats and Republicans will swap locations in the coming days. The GOP holds its caucus in Nevada on Tuesday, while Democrats face off in South Carolina on Feb. 27.

The polling of voters in Nevada and South Carolina was conducted for The Associated Press and the television networks by Edison Research as voters arrived at 25 randomly selected caucus sites.

Last of 'Angola Three' inmates released, thanks supporters

Last of 'Angola Three' inmates released, thanks supporters
  

ST. FRANCISVILLE, La. (AP) -- The last inmate of a group known as the "Angola Three" pleaded no contest Friday to manslaughter in the 1972 death of a prison guard and was released after more than four decades in prison, raising a clenched fist as he walked free.

Albert Woodfox and two other men became known as the "Angola Three" for their decades-long stays in isolation at the Louisiana Penitentiary at Angola and other prisons. Their cases drew condemnation from 

human rights groups and focused attention on the use of solitary confinement in American prisons.

Officials said they were kept in solitary because their Black Panther Party activism would otherwise rile up inmates at the maximum-security prison farm in Angola.

Woodfox consistently maintained his innocence in the killing of guard Brent Miller. He was being held at the West Feliciana Parish Detention Center in St. Francisville, about 30 miles north of Baton Rouge. He was awaiting a third trial in Miller's death after earlier convictions were thrown out by federal courts for reasons including racial bias in selecting a grand jury foreman.

Woodfox, who turned 69 on the same day he was released, spoke to reporters and supporters briefly outside the jail before driving off with his brother. Speaking of his future plans, he said he wanted to visit his mother's gravesite. She died while he was in prison, and Woodfox said he was not allowed to go to the funeral.

As to whether he would have done anything differently back in 1972, Woodfox responded: "When forces are beyond your control, there's not a lot you can do. Angola was a very horrible place at the time and everybody was just fighting to survive from day to day."

In a press release earlier Friday, Woodfox thanked his brother and other supporters who have lobbied over the years for his release.

"Although I was looking forward to proving my innocence at a new trial, concerns about my health and my age have caused me to resolve this case now and obtain my release with this no contest plea to lesser charges. I hope the events of today will bring closure to many," he said.

He had been twice convicted of murder and pleaded no contest Friday to manslaughter and aggravated burglary.

At the time of Miller's killing, Woodfox was serving time for armed robbery and assault. Inmates identified him as the one who grabbed the guard from behind while others stabbed Miller with a lawnmower blade and a hand-sharpened prison knife.

The star witness, a serial rapist who left death row and was pardoned by the Louisiana governor after his testimony, died before the second trial.

Woodfox was placed in solitary immediately after Miller's body was found in an empty prison dormitory, and then was ordered kept on "extended lockdown" every 90 days for decades.

A "no contest" plea is not an admission of guilt, and Woodfox has long maintained his innocence. But it does stand as a conviction, and Woodfox was freed after being given credit for time served.

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said the plea deal was "in the best interest of justice," and was reached with the cooperation of Miller's family.

Landry won re-election last fall against former Attorney General James "Buddy" Caldwell, who had adamantly opposed Woodfox's release. Woodfox's lawyer said the plea was the result of "tough negotiations" with Landry.

In addition to visiting his mother's grave, George Kendall, one of Woodfox's lawyers, said his future plans include getting a full medical checkup. Kendall said Woodfox has had numerous ailments, including a form of hepatitis, and has lacked quality medical care during his imprisonment.

Lawyers would not say where Woodfox went Friday, citing concerns for his safety. Parnell Herbert, a boyhood friend of Woodfox's, said it was unclear where Woodfox would end up living but that he would likely spend his time advocating for prisoners and doing "positive work in the community."

"I think he's a better man than he was when he went to prison, simply because he's an older man, a wiser man," Herbert said.

Woodfox's brother, Michael Mable, said his brother was doing well, and taking life one day at a time: "He'll think about tomorrow, tomorrow. It's a whole new process."

The other Angola Three inmates were Herman Wallace, who died a free man in October 2013, just days after a judge granted him a new trial in Miller's death, and Robert King, who was released in 2001 after his conviction in the death of a fellow inmate was overturned.

King was at the jail Friday and said he still remembers what it was like when he was released in 2001.

"The first moments seemed sort of surreal," he said. "You wake up and pinch yourself and wonder if you are actually free."

Cheered in Havana, Obama's Cuba trip spurs GOP skepticism

Cheered in Havana, Obama's Cuba trip spurs GOP skepticism

FILE - In this Feb. 17, 2016 file photo, President Barack Obama in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. The president said Thursday, Feb. 18, 2016, he'll raise human rights issues and other U.S. concerns with Cuban President Raul Castro during a history-making visit to the communist island nation. The brief visit in mid-March will mark a watershed moment in relations between the U.S. and Cuba, making Obama the first sitting U.S. president to set foot on the island in nearly seven decades. While in the country, Obama plans to meet with groups advocating for change in Cuba, a condition the president had laid out publicly for such a trip.

  

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama's plans for a history-making trip to Cuba drew hopeful cheers in Havana on Thursday but equally emphatic condemnation from many U.S. lawmakers and Republican presidential candidates, who accused the president of rewarding a "dictatorial regime."

Jeb Bush called the plans "appalling." Florida Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, born in Havana, deemed Obama's March 21-22 visit "absolutely shameful." New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez - a member of Obama's party - accused him of ceding U.S. leverage to the communist nation 90 miles south of Florida.

"The president is again prioritizing short-term economic interests over long-term and enduring American values," said Menendez, another Cuban-American. He likened Obama's rapprochement with Cuba to his nuclear deal with Iran.

Not so, said Obama, who pledged to press President Raul Castro on human rights and other thorny issues during their sit-down in the Cuban capital. The White House said pointedly that it had put Castro's government on notice that Obama would also meet with dissidents and activists -a precondition the president had laid out for a visit.

"We still have differences with the Cuban government that I will raise directly," Obama said as he announced the visit on Twitter.

The trip will mark a watershed moment in U.S.-Cuba relations, making Obama the first sitting U.S. president to set foot on the island in nearly seven decades. The U.S. was estranged from the communist nation for over half a century until Obama and Castro moved toward detente more than a year ago.

Since then, the nations have reopened embassies in Washington and Havana and moved to restore commercial flights, with a presidential visit seen as a key next step.

Yosvany Martinez, a 36-year-old government parking attendant in Havana, said he'd seen changes in his country since the thaw in relations: more tourism and happier people. But Cubans are still struggling economically, he said.

"This visit for me and for all Cubans will be an open door to what we need, which is that they finally lift the blockade, which is what hurts us," Martinez said.

Obama hopes to persuade Congress to lift the trade embargo - Havana's biggest request of the U.S. Although short-term prospects have seemed unlikely, some Republicans have suggested Congress could pass legislation repealing sanctions by year's end.

Cuban Foreign Trade Minister Rodrigo Malmierca, in Washington for business talks, told The Associated Press that Obama's visit will be good news for his country.

"The president will be welcomed," he said in Spanish.

Though Obama sees the re-launch with Cuba as a major achievement of his foreign policy, he's had to strike 

a careful balance to defend engaging with a communist government that still is seen as stifling political opposition and restricting free speech.

The White House pointed to Cuba's recent release of long-term political prisoners, expansion of Internet hotspots and easing of restrictions on private business. On the economic front, the two nations signed a deal this week on commercial air traffic, and the U.S. approved its first factory in Cuba since 1959, when Fidel Castro took power and nationalized billions in American property.

Still, Obama's advisers said the U.S. isn't satisfied with Cuba's human rights approach, citing a rise in short-term detentions as one example.

Obama has argued that the long U.S. effort to put an economic squeeze on Cuba has failed to advance U.S. interests. Engaging the former Cold War foe offers better prospects for reform, Obama and supporters of the policy change maintain.

"For Cubans accustomed to watching their government sputter down the last mile of socialism in a '57 Chevy, imagine what they'll think when they see Air Force One," said Sen. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican and one of Obama's closest allies on Cuba. Last year Flake traveled to Havana with Secretary of State John Kerry as the American flag was raised over the re-opened U.S. Embassy.

Castro's government offered no details about preparations, though it typically marshals thousands of police and soldiers for any major state visit to maintain control and order on the streets. The logistics will require some creativity as the White House sends the president and his massive entourage into a country with sketchy Internet and limited connectivity for U.S. cellphones.

From Cuba, Obama will travel to Argentina, where he'll meet with new President Mauricio Macri.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, whose father came to the U.S. from Cuba, said Obama shouldn't visit while the Castro family remains in power. Told of Obama's trip, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio quipped that Obama is "probably not going to invite me."

Both Democratic presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, support moving toward normalizing relations and lifting the trade embargo.

The last sitting president to visit Havana was Calvin Coolidge in 1928. Former President Jimmy Carter visited in 2011.

Fight over gunman's locked iPhone could have big impact

Fight over gunman's locked iPhone could have big impact
 

In this photo taken Nov. 15, 2015, Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks in Milan, Italy. A U.S. magistrate judge has ordered Apple to help the FBI break into a work-issued iPhone used by one of the two gunmen in the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, a significant legal victory for the Justice Department in an ongoing policy battle between digital privacy and national security. Apple CEO Tim Cook immediately objected, setting the stage for a high-stakes legal fight between Silicon Valley and the federal government.

  

WASHINGTON (AP) -- An extraordinary legal fight is brewing with major privacy implications for millions of cellphone users after a federal magistrate ordered Apple Inc. to help the FBI hack into an iPhone used by the gunman in the San Bernardino mass shootings.

The clash brings to a head a long-simmering debate between technology companies insistent on protecting digital privacy and law enforcement agencies concerned about losing their ability to recover evidence or eavesdrop on the communications of terrorists or criminals.

On Wednesday, the White House quickly disputed the contention by Apple's chief executive officer, Tim Cook, that the Obama administration is seeking to force the software company to build a "backdoor" to bypass digital locks protecting consumer information on Apple's popular iPhones.

The early arguments set the stage for what will likely be a protracted policy and public relations fight in the courts, on Capitol Hill, on the Internet and elsewhere.

"They are not asking Apple to redesign its product or to create a new backdoor to one of their products," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. "They're simply asking for something that would have an impact on this one device."

Within hours of the judge's order on Tuesday telling Apple to aid the FBI with special software in the case, Cook promised a court challenge. He said the software the FBI would need to unlock the gunman's work-issued iPhone 5C would be "too dangerous to create" and "undeniably" a backdoor.

Cook compared it to a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks, and said there was no way to keep the technique secret once it was developed.

"Once the information is known, or a way to bypass the code is revealed, the encryption can be defeated by anyone with that knowledge," Cook said.

At the center of the debate is the private information carried on nearly 900 million iPhones sold worldwide: Photographs, videos, chat messages, health records and more.

There also was swift reaction on the presidential campaign trail, where Donald Trump told Fox News that he agreed "100 percent with the courts," and on Capitol Hill, where the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Richard Burr, R-N.C., said, "Court orders are not optional and Apple should comply."

Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, who fought encryption in the 1990s, said she thought the government should be able to access the phone. On Twitter, Edward Snowden called it "the most important tech case in a decade."

But Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., called the Justice Department's request "unconscionable and unconstitutional."

The ruling by U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym represents a significant victory for the Justice Department, which last year decided not to pursue a legislative fix to address encryption but has now scored a win instead in the courts.

Federal officials until now have struggled to identify a high-profile case to make its concerns resonate. But in siding with the government, Pym, a former federal prosecutor, was persuaded that agents investigating the worst terror attack on U.S. soil since Sept. 11 had been hobbled by their inability to unlock the county-owned phone used by Syed Farook, who along with his wife, Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people in December before dying in a police shootout.

The dispute places Apple, one of the world's most respected companies, on the side of protecting the digital privacy of an accused Islamic terrorist.

"We have no sympathy for terrorists," Cook said.

Apple has provided default encryption on its iPhones since 2014, allowing any device's contents to be accessed only by the user who knows the phone's passcode. The phone Farook was using, running the newest version of Apple's iPhone operating system, was configured to erase data after 10 consecutive, unsuccessful unlocking attempts.

The magistrate ordered Apple to create special software the FBI could load onto the phone to bypass the self-destruct feature. The FBI wants to be able to try different combinations in rapid sequence until it finds the right one.

The Justice Department said it was asking Apple to help unlock only the iPhone used by Farook and owned by the county government where he worked as an environmental inspector. The judge said the software should include a "unique identifier" so that it can't be used to unlock other iPhones.

"If a court can legally compel Apple to do that, then it likely could legally compel any other software provider to do the same thing," including helping the government install tracking or eavesdropping software on a phone or laptop, said Kevin Bankston, director of the Open Technology Institute at New America.

It was unclear how readily the software might be modified to work against other iPhones, or how quickly Apple might update its own software to render the new bypass ineffective.

The next step in the case wasn't immediately clear, either. The judge gave Apple five days to contest the order as unreasonably burdensome. A magistrate judge on the lowest rung of the federal judiciary almost certainly could not establish meaningful precedent without affirmation from a higher-court judge, which means the fight is likely to proceed up the chain.

 

The former head of the FBI division responsible for producing some of the FBI's most cunning surveillance tools, Marcus Thomas, said Apple faces a challenge in showing that the government's request is overly burdensome. Thomas, the chief technology officer at Subsentio LLC, said companies that build ultra-secure products that might be used by criminals or terrorists can expect government requests for help.

"Society wants to know that companies aren't producing these complicated services and devices that can be used as weapons against them," he said.

Graphic photos begin 'Grim Sleeper' serial killing trial

Graphic photos begin 'Grim Sleeper' serial killing trial
 

FILE - In this Feb. 6, 2015, file photo, Lonnie David Franklin Jr., appears at a hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court. More than 30 years since the bodies of young women started turning up in alleyways and garbage bins in south Los Angeles, attorneys are set to give opening statements Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2016, in the long-awaited “Grim Sleeper” trial. Franklin Jr. has pleaded not guilty to killing nine women and a 15-year-old girl from 1985 to 2007 in one of the city’s most notorious serial killer cases.

  

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Their bodies were dumped in alleys and garbage bins in South Los Angeles, some naked, some covered with mattresses and trash. Most had been shot in the chest after some type of sexual contact, others strangled.

As prosecutor Beth Silverman showed photo after photo of the 10 victims to a packed courtroom on Tuesday, family members of the dead young women shook as they wept. Some covered their faces, others had to walk out.

It was an emotional beginning to the long-awaited "Grim Sleeper" trial more than 30 years after the first victim's death.

Lonnie Franklin Jr. has pleaded not guilty to killing nine women and a 15-year-old girl between 1985 and 2007 in one of the city's most notorious serial killer cases. Franklin, 63, has been behind bars awaiting trial for nearly six years since his arrest in 2010.

The "Grim Sleeper" nickname was coined because of an apparent 14-year gap in the murders between 1988 and 2002.

Police have dueling theories about the gap. Some think the killings stopped after one intended victim survived in 1988, scaring off the attacker. Other investigators believe there were more victims but their bodies just weren't found.

In her opening statement to jurors, Silverman said Franklin took advantage of the crack cocaine epidemic in South Los Angeles, targeting women "willing to sell their bodies and their souls in order to gratify their dependency on this powerful drug."

Autopsies showed all but one victim had cocaine in their systems when they were killed. Some had turned to prostitution.

"This was the perfect opportunity for someone who preyed on women," Silverman said. "Someone who knew the streets and the dark alleys by heart, someone who lived there and was able to blend in, someone who knew where the drug-addicted women and perhaps prostitutes would congregate and who knew how to lure potential victims into the darkness and the isolation of a vehicle through the promise of crack."

Franklin's attorney Seymour Amster will deliver his opening statement later in the trial.

"There's more to it than people want to believe," Amster told The Associated Press last week.

Silverman said the killings all were linked by firearms or DNA that matched Franklin. She also showed jurors photos that Franklin had in his home of two victims, including one who had just been shot in the chest when she was photographed.

As many as 30 detectives investigated the Grim Sleeper killings in the 1980s. They exhausted leads within a few years.

A special squad of detectives was assembled after the most recent killing, the June 2007 shooting of 25-year-old Janecia Peters, whose naked body was found in the fetal position inside a trash bag.

Police arrested Franklin three years later after his DNA was connected to more than a dozen crime scenes. An officer posing as a busboy at a pizza parlor got DNA samples from dishes and utensils Franklin had been using at a birthday party.

Family members of the Grim Sleeper victims and a survivor of the attacks have been frustrated by repeated delays in the case and were eager for the trial to start.

Porter Alexander, the father of one of the victims, was 48 when his 18-year-old daughter was killed. He's now 75.

"The day of reckoning is here," Alexander said last week. "You can't help but be excited that you lived to see an end to this madness. It's been a long road, and I'm glad I'll physically be able to be there."

When photos of his daughter's naked body were shown in court Tuesday, Alexander walked out as other family members comforted his weeping wife.

The Grim Sleeper was among at least three serial killers who stalked Los Angeles-area women during the crack cocaine epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s.

The attacks were dubbed the "Southside Slayer" killings before authorities concluded more than one attacker was involved.

Deadly airstrikes hit hospitals, school in northern Syria

Deadly airstrikes hit hospitals, school in northern Syria
  

Turkish forces' armoured vehicles patrol at the southeastern town of Nusaybin, Turkey, near the border with Syria, where Turkish security forces are battling militants linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers, Party or PKK, Sunday, Feb. 14, 2016, a day after Turkish media reports said a police officer was injured in a clash. The private Dogan news agency said the militants on Saturday detonated an explosive device in the town as a military vehicle was passing by, but no one injured. A second bomb was defused in a controlled explosion.

  

BEIRUT (AP) -- Airstrikes blamed on Russia hit at least two hospitals and a school in northern Syria on Monday, killing and wounding dozens of civilians and further dimming hopes for a temporary truce, as government troops backed by Russian warplanes pressed a major offensive north of Aleppo.

The raids came days after Russia and other world powers agreed to bring about a pause in fighting that would allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid and the revival of peace talks.

The projected truce agreed on Friday in Munich was to begin in a week, but there was no sign that would happen.

On Monday, Syrian state TV reported that pro-government forces have entered the northern town of Tel Rifaat, where they were fighting "fierce battles" against insurgents. Tel Rifaat is a major stronghold of militants fighting to overthrow President Bashar Assad.

Capturing Tel Rifaat would bring government forces closer to their target of Azaz, near the Turkish border.

In Idlib province, an airstrike destroyed a makeshift clinic supported by Doctors Without Borders. The international charity, also known by its French acronym MSF, said the hospital in the town of Maaret al-Numan was hit four times in attacks that were minutes apart. It said seven people were killed and eight others were "missing, presumed dead."

"The destruction of the hospital leaves the local population of around 40,000 people without access to medical services in an active zone of conflict," said MSF mission chief Massimiliano Rebaudengo.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Russian warplanes targeted the hospital, destroying it and killing nine people. The opposition group, which tracks both sides of the conflict through sources on the ground, said dozens were wounded in the attack.

"The entire building has collapsed on the ground," said opposition activist Yahya al-Sobeih, speaking by phone from Maaret al-Numan. He said five people were killed near the MSF clinic and "all members of the medical team inside are believed to be dead."

The Observatory and other opposition activists said another hospital in Maaret al-Numan was also hit Monday, most likely by a Syrian government airstrike.

In the neighboring Aleppo province, a missile struck a children's hospital in the town of Azaz, killing five people, including three children and a pregnant woman, according to the Observatory. A third air raid hit a school in a nearby village, killing seven and wounding others.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said close to 50 civilians were killed and many more wounded in missile attacks on at least five medical facilities and two schools in northern Syria.

Ban called the attacks "blatant violations of international laws" that "are further degrading an already devastated health care system and preventing access to education in Syria," according to U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq.

Activists posted amateur video that showed civil defense workers pulling bodies from the rubble of the MSF-supported structure in Idlib, which collapsed into a heap of rubble and was tilting to one side.

Others showed a huge crater next to a building that purportedly housed the child and maternal hospital in Azaz. Incubators could be seen in a ward littered with broken glass and toppled medical equipment.

Russia says its airstrikes are targeting militants and denies hitting hospitals or civilians. But rights groups and activists have repeatedly accused Moscow of killing civilians.

Those accusations have increased recently as Russia intensified its airstrikes to provide cover to Syrian troops advancing in the north. Troops are trying to cut rebel supply lines to Turkey and surround rebel-held parts of Aleppo city, once Syria's largest.

Daragh McDowell, the head Russia analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, a British risk analysis firm, said Russian and Syrian tactics "strongly suggest a deliberate effort to further exacerbate the refugee crisis, as a means of destabilizing Europe and pressuring the West to agree to a settlement in Syria on Moscow and Damascus' terms."

Abdulrahman Al-Hassan, chief liaison officer at the Syrian Civil Defense, a group of first responders known as the "White Helmets," said the women's hospital in Azaz was hit by two surface-to-surface missiles. He said some 10 people were killed and many were wounded.

"We think it is Russia because the photos of the missiles have Russian language (and) because we haven't seen this kind (of missile) before the Russian intervention," he said.

Russia has been a key ally of Assad throughout the five-year uprising and civil war, and began launching airstrikes on Sept. 30.

In Turkey, the private Dogan news agency reported that more than 30 of those wounded in Russian airstrikes in Azaz, primarily children, were transferred to a hospital in southern Turkey. It showed footage of ambulances arriving and medics unloading children on stretchers.

"They hit the school, they hit the school," wailed a Syrian woman who was unloaded from an ambulance onto a wheelchair.

The U.S. State Department condemned the airstrikes, saying they cast doubt on "Russia's willingness and/or ability to help bring to a stop the continued brutality of the Assad regime against its own people."

In Brussels, European Union officials had earlier called on Turkey to halt its military action in Syria after Turkish forces shelled positions held by a U.S.-backed Kurdish militia over the weekend.

The EU's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said that "only a few days ago, all of us including Turkey, sitting around the table, decided steps to de-escalate and have a cessation of hostilities."

Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, said "we have the plan for a cessation of hostilities and I think everybody has to abide by that."

The U.N.'s special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, arrived in Damascus on Monday for talks with Syrian officials.